SWOT Vac Thoughts

So it's SWOT Vac here at Melbourne Uni, which stands for "Study Without Teaching". It's basically a reading period wherein everyone catches up on all of the things they didn't learn for the semester in preparation for their exams, haha. Surprisingly, everyone is actually locked up in their rooms doing work, which I didn't really expect, considering how badly we all slacked off during the semester. But I suppose it is crunch time.

Yesterday (yesterday being Monday, though I know it's technically already Wednesday), I helped my friend Alisa out with her teaching exam, where she basically had to give a lesson to an advanced voice student for 30 minutes and be observed and marked on her teaching methods. Aside from just helping her out (since you can hardly teach if you don't have a student!), it was actually really helpful to me as well, since the piece we worked on is actually going on my junior recital in April. Since we don't do a lot of historical-accuracy work back at Denison, she helped me a bit with that, and overall I think the piece is sounding much better, which is great because I haven't had a lot of opportunity to work on any of my recital repertoire this term.

Afterward, we had celebratory drinks at Turf, and then we hit the CBD proper for some shopping (although neither of us bought anything), and then we went to all-you-can-eat sushi at a restaurant in Melbourne Central with a sushi train. It was fantastically epic. Her friend Anisa and Anisa's boyfriend met us there, and we must have been there for at least two hours or so, just gorging ourselves on sushi. It was a $30 all-you-can-eat deal, so we had to make sure we ate at least $30! We ended up with this huuuge tower of sushi plates. It was pretty funny, and the sushi was quite good as well.

Alisa and I have spent quite a lot of time together lately, having lessons for her exam, etc. She's one of the friendliest people I know, and the very first person in Early Voices to talk to me and make me feel welcome in the ensemble. Next week we have a little trip planned out to around where Alisa lives, and she's going to take me sightseeing around the area, which is fantastic because I haven't really gotten out to any of the suburbs yet. Another friend from Early Voices, Helen (who I actually auditioned for EV with, and sat next to all semester -- my fellow Alto II!), has promised to take me home with her to Geelong before I leave as well, since I'm just curious to see what it's like (Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria and I have quite a few friends there -- David is from Geelong as well; not to mention it's home to this year's AFL Premiers, the Geelong Cats and my secondary team). I'm determined to explore more of the Melbourne area before I leave! I haven't gotten to do as much travel around Australia as I'd hoped (since I'm poor and couldn't find a job, sadly), so at the very least I'd like to become a bit better acquainted with the greater Melbourne area. So far this weekend is looking like the weather is going to be fantastic, so I'll hopefully hit the beach, and maybe explore St Kilda a bit as well.

The last few weeks have been a bit busier than usual; the Great Ocean Road was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to spend some solid time with the Melbourne Arcadia people. We went platypus-spotting on Saturday, and I'm told a lot of native Australians have never even seen a platypus in the wild, and we saw several, so that was pretty incredible. You can't get very close to them, and they swim away very quickly, so really they just look like a sliver of silver (try saying that five times fast! Haha), and they're only about 40cm long, so when you can't get much closer than 15 metres (and that's if you're lucky and they accidentally surface close to your boat), they're really difficult to find.

We also saw the Twelve Apostles on Saturday just around dusk (although apparently there aren't twelve of them...only six, or something, though there used to be more) and the Loch Ard Gorge on Sunday morning, as I mentioned in my previous post, and they were absolutely magnificent. It was a bit overcast both days, but still gorgeous.

The Twelve Apostles are near the end of the Great Ocean Road, so we spent the night on the far end of the Great Ocean Road and then drove back up the next day, making a stop to go koala-spotting, and we saw quite a few koalas! They're adorable, even if they are lazy little buggers. =P They spend most of their days sleeping, and when they're not sleeping they're eating. Fun fact: male koalas have bifurcated penises (two-pronged!), and female koalas have two vaginas and two separate uteruses (uteri?). They also don't mate for life, which I always wondered about because they're rather solitary animals, but I always thought of them as cute and cuddly and I guess somehow that relates to monogamous in my head? Koalas are also not actually bears, and apparently in recent years there's been a movement to stop people calling them "koala bears", because it's inaccurate.

Anyway, then that afternoon we went surfing. I got up a few times and even managed to catch one or two waves on my own, but the water was very, very cold (remember, we're in the south of Australia, and it's only gotten warmer in the last week or two -- it's still technically only spring here, and the Great Ocean Road is even farther south than Melbourne), and I don't know what's been wrong with me recently but my legs cramp very easily, especially if I point my toes. This is a problem because I always point my toes for no reason, haha. (Chalk it up to years of dance training and/or colorguard, I guess.) So after the first couple of successful waves, every time I jumped up my leg would cramp and I would either have to get down immediately or I would fall into the water because it hurt so badly. It sucked, but oh well. I did get about an hour and a half of water time in though, so that was good.

We got back into the city around dinnertime, and then the next day I jumped right back into schoolwork. For my music history subject, Medieval & Early Modern Music (we call it MEMM for short), the final project is a group performance, so we've had a lot of rehearsals recently. A few members of the actual group are a bit flaky, but I have confidence that we'll be able to pull it together at least decently well for the final performance.

Then last week I was consumed with the Vocal Ensemble concert we had on Friday, which went beautifully. I was added to one ensemble at the last minute a few weeks ago, and that was the ensemble which probably had the most challenging part of the programme, the Brahms Zigeunerlieder. Most of the programme was in German, and we did eight movements of the Zigeunerlieder (I think there are twelve in total?), entirely in German, and not even easy German. There was one movement at an extremely fast tempo with all quavers (which is what they call eighth notes here), and I could barely read the notes and the words at the same time, let alone spit them out that quickly. So we had extra rehearsals for the Zigeunerlieder alone, and I spent a lot of time working on it on my own as well.

In the end, the concert went extremely well. Everyone loved it, and I can honestly say that I think that was one of the top three concerts I've ever had the pleasure of performing on, not to mention that the Vocal Ensemble is the most hilarious, gregarious, wonderful group of incredibly talented and amazing people I've ever met in my life. The culture of the music department here is amazing because everyone goes out of their way to say nice things to each other, and my day was made on more than one occasion by someone who probably didn't even realise they were making my day. Everyone is so genuine and sweet, and it's been pretty incredible to see such amazingly talented people go out of their way to compliment their fellow performers. At home it seems that people do this because it's almost compulsory; if someone sings on a recital or a concert, you're practically obligated to say "good job". But so often I find it's the most talented people who lack this sincerity (which is not to say that there aren't plenty of talented people at Denison who are incredibly sweet), and here it's just so refreshing to see everyone so down-to-earth.

Vocal Ensemble this semester really renewed my passion for music, and I think it will be the class I miss the most once I leave. Also, at some point I hope to do a post just about Vocal Ensemble and the hysterical people in it, but we all know my track record with doing blog posts about what I say I'm going to, so don't hold your breath. =P

Anyway, after the concert, we all went over to Naughto's, a local pub just across the street and up about a block from the con (the Conservatorium of Music), maybe even less. Roz, the head of Voice, bought us champagne and nibbles and we sat around and had a lovely time just talking and enjoying ourselves. After drinks, Daniel, Ashlyn and I walked home together, since we all live in the same area, and it was so nice to chat with them, just the three of us. We dropped off Ashlyn first, then Daniel took me home with him for a little while and I met his mother, who is an amazing woman as well, very honest and hilarious. We stood around the kitchen for a while, talking about everything from footy to Australian politics and Kevin Rudd (the current Australian Prime Minister, who apparently speaks extremely fluent Chinese). It started raining as Daniel and I were leaving, so Daniel drove me back to RMIT Village and promised that we would explore North Melbourne (something I haven't really had a chance to do yet, which is unfortunate since I live here!) together sometime soon before he headed off.

I'm a little bit sad that I spent so much time in the group of people that I am/was already in, because I'm starting to get to know all these new and amazing people so much better now, and with less than a month to go before I go home, it's not enough time with them. I suppose it was never going to be, but that's why I'll have to come back, and soon, as Nick keeps reminding me. "We expect to see you back here very soon," he says to me in his smiling bass voice, and I know I would rather die than disappoint, or worse yet, lose touch with these incredible people.

The Real World: Melbourne

So, I never got around to doing that footy post, and guess what? This isn't going to be it. I'm currently procrastinating a research plan for my policy class, and I've discovered that procrastination is even easier here than it ever was in the States, since when I'm at Denison, past a certain time of night I have no choice but to do my work because there's no-one to distract me. Whereas now that I'm on an opposite schedule from everyone at home, they can distract me late at night when my friends here are asleep (as I should be as well).

A few brief updates -- first, the last two days of Prosh Week: they were sort of a bust, to be totally honest. I burned out, which I sort of knew I might but had hoped that I wouldn't. I slept late on Thursday morning (partially because I was up so late the night before...I still haven't been sleeping all that well, to be honest), and I swung by for the Scav List drop at noon, but left shortly after that to run to a rehearsal for Vocal Ensemble and then I had my Medieval & Early Modern Music lecture, which I can't miss because Melanie (our lecturer) actually takes attendance.

Then I had rehearsal till 6:15, after which I went and spent some time helping out with Scav Hunt stuff, but I left that to go see David again after promising to return -- and seriously, finding the motivation to leave his place to go back for Scav Hunt was literally one of the top three hardest things I did that week. After going full throttle for the first three days of Prosh Week though, I guess it was more or less understandable that I was tired. I went back to help with Scav Hunt for a little while, but there wasn't that much to do because none of us wanted to get deported, and as such we didn't do anything on the black list. (Rumour has it that black list is currently on total lockdown because there were arrests and now there's a huge investigation. This is like third-hand gossip though, because I heard from Corey who heard from Andrew, so I don't have any details.)

Friday morning I was meant to do the Metcard Drop, but I was subbed out at the last minute because someone else wanted to do it and I'd stopped caring, haha. Apparently our team almost got arrested for public indecency (or something along those lines) as well, but the cop let them off. MUSEX ended up coming in last of the large teams, but we all had a fantastic time, and that's what we were really in it for.

So I slept almost all of Saturday, and spent most of the following week (this past week) recovering and getting back into the swing of things. We're pretty much at mid-term, since this past week was Week 6 and the teaching period is only twelve weeks long, so suddenly everyone is scrambling to do real work. I have one major assignment due this week (Week 7), three due next week (Week 8), break, then one due the second week after break (Week 10), and one due the week after that (Week 11). Then the teaching period will draw to a close, which is really crazy to think about.

At any rate, Friday night it was party party again, and Corey and I headed over to Perseverance, where (for those who don't keep up with me on Facebook or LiveJournal) David and I broke up. Needless to say, that was not a very good night. I'm not particularly devastated, which I suppose is a good thing, just...sort of out of whack. I mean, I did like him, and I still do, and I wouldn't mind still being with him, but if this is how things have worked out then I suppose I'm alright with that as well. It was always going to be over eventually. Of course, I was a bit -- ok, extremely -- annoyed with his poor choice in break-up timing and locale, but I did understand the fact that he didn't want to put it off, and I appreciate that for what it's worth. We had coffee Saturday afternoon to talk things over a little bit more and nothing's changed from how it ended on Friday night, but we're still friends and I was glad for the closure (and of course the fantastic coffee) somewhere that wasn't a loud club where I was distracted and caught off-guard.

But the fact remains that I've been seeing David for a month now, and I realised yesterday (well, Saturday, since it's now early Monday morning) that in that month most of my social schedule had more to do with him than anything else, which isn't really a good thing or a bad thing, just a fact. Only, the other fact is that David and I had been seeing each other since 11 August -- I'm not [totally] neurotic with dates; it was just particularly memorable because it was exactly one month after I arrived in Australia -- and that, combined with the fact that living in an apartment complex is not as conducive as a dormitory for meeting people and making friends.

So suddenly I'm faced with trying to re-establish a social life when everyone else has already done so. I will admit that this is a bit annoying. I do have friends, of course -- Arcadians, and Jarrod, of course, and MUSEX people, as well as a lot of people from IH (who are also friends with David). It's just I've sort of painted myself into a corner and it's not really his fault and it's not really my fault, it's just the way things happened.

So right now I'm less getting over him and more getting back into the way things were before him, which seems like a terribly long time ago, which in some ways I feel like it is and at the same time, the last month has disappeared so quickly I feel as though I've only been here a month at most.

At any rate, Saturday night I hung out with the Arcadians who are at University College (UC) -- Mandy, Isa, Becca, and Cassandra -- for dinner, and we talked in Becca and Cassandra's room for a while afterward. Mandy, Cassandra, and I had planned on going to a party, but instead Cassandra and I decided to go clubbing over in Fitzroy. On our way there we got sidetracked by Koko Black, which is basically a chocolate cafe. Becca, Becky, and I had had dessert there after the Carlton/Geelong match a month ago, but Cassandra hadn't been yet, so we went together and had some very decadent (and slightly expensive) chocolate and did the post-break-up commiseration that girls do.

We eventually made it over to Fitzroy, where we went back to Perseverance, which is the same club I'd been at the night prior when David broke up with me. Part of this was being cheap, because Perseverance doesn't charge a cover, and part of this was the fact that Perseverance is actually quite a good club. A large part of it was sort of a need to establish Perseverance as something other than "that club where I got broken up with."

The night was a bit of a flop. I don't know what was going on with Perseverance last night, but it was like 40-year-old mixer night or something, because the majority of the clubbers were 40+ (there was even a couple, clearly 50+, grinding on the dance floor, which was sort of like -- wow, that's fantastic for you guys, but none of us want to see it). Some guy kept staring at me, and eventually tried to get Cassandra to go dance with his friend, presumably so he could dance with me, but he wasn't attractive and came off as a bit of a douchebag. There literally was not one person there worth dancing or making out with, which was unfortunate.

But Cassandra and I had a great time dancing together, and we left the club somewhat early, shortly after that guy tried to get Cassandra to dance with his friend, and we just walked up and down Brunswick Street looking for a bar we could just sit at and talk or something, but nothing caught our eye. We eventually headed home, but the conversation and the company was wonderful, and I was glad to get out and having fun even if nothing really good happened. Girlfriends are always the best post-break-up company. Even if I wasn't particularly devastated, it was good that I wasn't alone.

I sort of wonder if this whole experience -- not just the whole thing with David, but the whole semester I'm spending here -- will become surreal once I leave. Like something that I intellectually know happened, but something that I feel so far removed from that it almost seems more like a dream. Even now I still wake up some mornings and wonder if it is a dream.

But, what's maybe most important is that I really don't regret anything that happened this past month. Two entries ago I said I didn't want to regret anything I did or didn't do, and I'm glad all of this happened. Denison is such a small bubble, with its tiny dating pool and cookie-cutter guys, and aside from being really glad that I met such a great guy and had a great time with him (even if it is over now), it was sort of a boost in self-esteem.

Not that my self-esteem was low to begin with, but after two years at a tiny school where all the guys are the same and not really my type (and there aren't enough to begin with), with summers and holidays at home where I'm stuck in the Bridgewater-Raritan rut of who I used to be, and being unable to go out and drink and be social like a "real" adult could be, I hadn't met anyone new in a long time. It's hardly an "I'm desperate" situation, but when you're in what seems like a holding pattern for so long, you start to wonder if it will ever end. Or if it's not really a holding pattern, and it's just you being unappealing. I mean, it's not as if I can't be happy without a man, but it's always nice to have one as well.

Melbourne feels more like reality than Denison or Bridgewater ever do, and it's a bit of a relief that I can meet people, and guys are interested.

So. I'm going to attempt to get my work done now so I can sleep. Rest assured that the list of post topics grows ever longer, and they're not all point-by-point recollections of what I did each day. There's one rolling around in my head about Greek life (hee!) that I hope to get written sometime this week.

"No Worries"

One of the best things about Australia is what I've taken to calling the Aussie state of mind. You know the one I'm talking about, where they call everyone "mate" and instead of saying "you're welcome," they say "no worries." Combined with the accent, listening to conversations down here is just so relaxing.

See, I like schedules. I like to know where I'm going, when I'm going, with whom I'm going, how I'm getting there, what I'll be doing once I get there, and when I'll be leaving. In the States, things are hectic like that. I could have my day planned down to the minute because if I wasn't at this class or that club, I had to go to this rehearsal or that meeting, or maybe even both at once.

But part of this whole experience is the beauty of a new start. I'm not in any clubs (yet), I have friends that I like to go out with, but not every night, and I'm basically free to be as social or antisocial as I like. I have a social life, but it's not quite as jam-packed as it was last semester, or even during the summer when I worked all day, every day, and then went out for a late coffee with friends before rinsing and repeating.

We don't make plans here. A "plan" here is a text from Mara saying "hey, we're making dinner, want to come over?" or a Tuesday afternoon e-mail from Mitch wondering if anyone wants to go see The Hangover in four hours. I mean, I occasionally did spontaneous things whilst I was at Denison, but here I would say that roughly 80% of social activities are arranged less than 12 hours in advance, and more or less on a whim. And when things go wrong, as they sometimes do, no-one freaks out. For instance, when a large contingent of us headed down to Melbourne Central, on Tuesday evening and discovered that not only were tickets $18, not $10, but that the movie was sold out and it was the last showing of the evening, we just sat down on an s-shaped bench and chatted. For an hour and a half. Then we strolled back to RMIT Village, stopping for popcorn along the way, and hung out talking in the courtyard for another half an hour or so.

It's a nice change of pace, most certainly. I feel as though firstly, the movie thing would never have happened in the States with my friends there; we would have checked the movie, and possibly pre-ordered tickets, and if it had still happened, we certainly wouldn't have found a bench and sat down to chat for an hour and a half before leisurely strolling home.

But I do like to stay occupied at least part of the time. So on Wednesday I auditioned for the University of Melbourne Early Voices Ensemble. They're putting on Dido and Aeneas this semester, and since they've offered me (and I've accepted) a spot in their Alto section, presumably this means that I will be in an opera this semester. Furthermore, I auditioned for the Vocal Ensemble on Thursday, and they've tentatively offered me a spot (the director apparently isn't sure my voice will blend well with the rest of the ensemble), so hopefully that will go forward as well.

It turns out I won't be able to take voice lessons through the University (not enough room in my course load), so I do have to look for a voice teacher now, as well as a job. But my cold is more or less gone, the homesickness has begun to abate, and I feel like I'm finally settling into this city and this new lifestyle.

So all I'll say is no worries -- I have faith that everything will work itself out.